Woman in nail polish case denied extra free time from jail

November 16, 2010

A Lake County judge today denied a request for extra free time away from jail for the woman convicted of fatally striking a motorcyclist with her car while painting her nails.

Judge Fred Foreman did agree to allow Lora Hunt, 50, to leave Lake County Community Based Corrections Center, where she has been sentenced 18 months of periodic imprisonment, for two hours each Sunday to attend Jesus Name Apostolic Church across the street.Hunt had asked to attend her hometown church in Morris, about 25 miles southwest of Joliet and about 90 miles from the jail in Waukegan. When that was denied, she asked to attend a church in Winthrop Harbor, also near Waukegan.

Hunt was jailed for the 2009 crash that killed Anita Zaffke, 56, of Lake Zurich, when Hunt's car rear-ended Zaffke's motorcycle while Hunt was applying nail polish behind the wheel. Under the terms of her sentence for reckless homicide, she is allowed to leave jail during the day for work, treatment or community services.

Hunt's attorney, Ragan Freitag, asked Foreman to allow Hunt to move up a level under a system in place to reward good behavior and compliance of the rules of periodic imprisonment. That would allow her an extra 12 hours of free time away from prison per week.

"She has maintained a positive attitude, and her overall performance has been excellent," Freitag said.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel said that while he understood that Foreman tried to strike a balance in her sentence, he objected to the new request. Mermel said Hunt has a four-hour train ride in the morning to commute to her job in southwest suburban New Lenox and is driven back to the Waukegan jail in the evening by a family member, when she is allowed to stop and have dinner.

"I think what we are finding out is that she is spending precious to almost no time in jail as it is," Mermel said. "To be out in the sunshine and riding on the train is better than jail."

In denying the motion, Foreman said that he was also concerned with the amount of time Hunt spends away from the corrections center. However, he said, he wanted her to be able to pay for the cost of her periodic imprisonment and restitution to the family, and the only job she could find was near her hometown.

"I'm not prepared now to make this decision," Foreman said. "I want more time to see how she is handling this time away."

Greg Zaffke II, the son of Anita Zaffke, said he believes periodic imprisonment in Lake County is nothing more than "modified, or enhanced, probation."

"We've lost my mom forever and she gets to see her family and friends everyday of the week because someone is always giving her a ride home," he said. "She's never been in jail at all for killing my mom. She's never had to wear the jail uniform.

"The crux of my whole argument is that if this were a DUI, periodic imprisonment would not have been considered," he continued. "The disparity between regular traffic fatalities involving reckless homicide and DUI, when they are fundamentally the same offense, has got to change."